I would simply have climbed out the pool and gone home 
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‘Everyone Active’
Have stolen my Better Membership and the London Aquatic Centre.
Anyone know them?
Means I’m fucked for a pool near Covent Garden.
They run K2 in Crawley. I’ve only ever been there for competitions but they seem to do a good job. It could have been worse - it could have been Freedom Leisure!
Swanley, White Oaks is run by them, and they took over other Sevenoaks District pools/leisure inc. Lullingstone Golf. Just another big leisure company, like all the others
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Hmm.
Every which way I’ve lost access to hundred of swimming pools. But I’ll never give up the Aquatic so I’m just fooked.
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Could you not just switch to a Better Membership if you’re likely to use those pools more, and then pay as you go at Aquatic?
Anytime I’ve been I’ve just booked a slot about an hour before turning up.
Or other way round if the majority of your swimming is at Stratford, just do a PAYG for the occasional times you want to use the Oasis, say.
Pain to lose access to them all though, I admit.
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Better lost the Lambeth contract as well recently. I coach at West Norwood and its a lot more expensive now, and worse run.
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Yeah, I’d noticed since returning to club swims at Clapham that the branding had switched from Better to Everyone Active. As I’ve moved, I only swim there in club sessions now, so not something that has any real bearing on me
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750m (race distance TT) PB this morning 11:33, 1 minute off previous best 
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Four club swims now in two weeks and i’m loving my swimming again. Liking the social element to the session and the variety of the sessions too. This evenings swim had 2 ims for example - completely out of my comfort zone with these but gave them a shot. My crawl is bad enough, my breast, back and fly are laughable!
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In the two minutes it takes me to do 50m on my back I imagine the million different ways the life guard is laughing; uncontrollably, falling out on the tall chair, streaming to FB, calling reception, announcing it on the tanoy, waiting at the end of the lane to tap me on the head and ask me to leave the pool…
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Todays warm down…6x 150m
Ffs. In a 2200m session.
There are pros and cons to having your workout in your goggles.
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Today i did 4 x 50 at target 200 pace off 1.30 (approx 1:1 work to rest. Was going to do 6 but no chance, 43,42,43,41 . Would take that now as a 200. Will do 6 next swim.
Also did 16x25 off 30 holding around 21 working on DPS, pull/paddles before the previous.
Im well slow now.
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I’m definitely getting somewhere. Had been struggling to break through 25 minutes for 1500m since returning to swimming. Progressive reduction but all fairly small gains (25:30 → 25:15 → 25:10 etc). Monday, I smashed through going 24:23.
It all just felt so different. Before I was waiting/searching for the wall each length - on Monday the wall was appearing before I was expecting it. I also maintained a pretty consistent pace throughout. There was a minor drop off in 1300 → 1400m, but that was because I got some water in my goggles and I think it distracted me. I managed to refocus in the final 100 and pick it back up again.
Having said that, definitely still some scope for improvement. I did start a bit fast the first 300m or so, but then after that I held a fairly consistent pace. 300m splits of 4:43, 4:51, 4:56, 4:56, 4:57.
I don’t think I have much scope now to ever get close to breaking my bike and run pbs (especially the running ones), but swimming I do feel I could still break new ground. According to Garmin Connect, my best ever 1500 was 23:14 back in 2018. That was a 20m pool, so if I can get close to that in a 25m pool I’d take that as a win. 70s is quite a bit to find, but a 45s breakthrough in 2 weeks gives me some hope!
Image included to show the fairly consistent lap splits in the main 1500
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I’ve been swimming at Loughborough Uni on Thursday mornings for the last month with the Para team & was joined by Alex Yee in the warm up room today 
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Swim Camp 2 weeks ago was amazing. My swim has actually been progressing reasonably well this year, so 3 days and 10 hours in the pool came at a good time.
No massive changes, however, a combination of several small changes have made a huge difference. In summary:
- change in body position when pushing off - Limited use in OWS, but noticeable improvement in pool swim pace. I used to drop back 50cm on turns, now I am closing on the person in front
- Slower recovery and slower catch and more dynamic pull and finish
- Really focus on pointing toes The video analysis was interesting , could really see that I wasn’t pointing my toes on the kick, and each time I kicked my feet and legs were dragged downwards, but concentrating on pointing my toes, my legs are staying noticeably higher
The result is an improved pace of more than 15s/100m. I have gone from being one of the slowest in my lane to one of the fastest. Previously I was working my ass off to just hold on to the pace, and normally didn’t get as much recovery as the faster swimmers between sets, now, if I need a rest, I can go near the back and swim easily and have no problem keeping up.
I am now back to where I was pre-shoulder injury, so I have been here before, I just need to build on the gains and not fall back into bad technique. Wednesday and Friday mornings will be early morning swim sessions
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You may think so, but by being more streamlined the body is “learning” how it should feel when its the most hydrodynamic and you can then feel easier the drag being caused by the body when swimming.
Also think about not breathing into and out of the turns, no breathing last 5m into turn, and always take 2 or 3 strokes (depending on side) before breathing, another that will make you faster in the pool but also give a hidden benefit in OW, notably that you will control your breathing better; the exhale will be more controlled underwater
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Great job Matt 
Body position also handy for pontoon starts and aussie exits.
I see a lot of people pointing their toes, I’ve switched between stiff ankles and relaxed to feel the difference and it’s massive!
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When I read this I thought that you meant that Covent Garden pool is now Everyone Active. Having looked at the website it appears to still be run by Better so I assume that you mean that your local pool has changed to EA and that means you can’t access Covent Garden.
You had my hopes right up there then.
Soz
Apparently there’s a pool called Madison gardens or something not far from Charing Cross Road but my Everyone Active membership doesn’t yet let me in there